


Of Mugs and Memories

by Celyan



Series: Works for 007 Fest 2020 [32]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Bond accidentally breaks Q’s favourite mug, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:13:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25648654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celyan/pseuds/Celyan
Summary: Q’s favourite mug has an adorable black cat on it. Now it’s in pieces on the floor, and it’s all Bond’s fault.
Relationships: James Bond/Q
Series: Works for 007 Fest 2020 [32]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1813132
Comments: 1
Kudos: 46





	Of Mugs and Memories

**Author's Note:**

  * For [scarytheory](https://archiveofourown.org/users/scarytheory/gifts).



> Written for the Collab prompt table and scarytheory who gave me the following prompt: _Oh no! Bond accidentally broke Q's favourite mug! What should he do now?_

Bond looks at the pieces on the kitchen floor with dawning dread.

What used to be Q’s favourite mug now lies there forlornly on the floor, its handle a ways apart and the rest in several variously sized pieces. The black cat adorning the mug—washing its front paw with its tail delicately wrapped around its legs on one side and crouching down ready to pounce with its eyes the size of saucers on the other—is barely recognisable anymore. 

Bond stares at the mess and asks himself, in perfect seriousness, whether there’s any way that he can salvage the situation. Perhaps with some judicious use of the quick drying glue? 

No, he decides right after, no amount of glue in the world can fix this particular mess. He sighs and runs his fingers through his hair, trying and failing to come up with a way to save himself. 

But it’s no use, he can barely think straight; he just keeps imagining the way Q’s face will fall as soon as he hears about what happened to his favourite mug, not to mention why it happened, and that makes his head hurt.

Granted, he’s fresh off of a mission, slightly injured, more than slightly sleep-deprived and still buzzing with leftover adrenaline, which is hardly the perfect combination to be doing anything in the kitchen. Adding to that Q apparently having left in a hurry and leaving his mug by the edge of the kitchen counter, it was never a good omen for him. 

So there’s no way to fix the mug, but could he replace it? 

James glances at the clock, making sure that he has enough time to finish this mission before Q is due to arrive, and makes his way to his laptop. He makes several quick Internet searches, combing through all the places he either knows are within a driving distance in London or that do same day delivery, and comes up empty. 

It’s starting to look like not only a needle in a haystack situation, but a haystack in a pile of multiple haystacks, and James keeps glancing at the clock in the corner of the laptop screen with mounting nervousness. What if the mug is really old, a family heirloom of some sort? Something that has been in Q’s family for decades? Only to be lost because he has been too careless while trying to make himself some tea.

There’s no way around it, he has to come clean and confess his actions to his lover. 

James turns off the laptop and cleans up the mess on the floor, being extra careful to get all of the tiniest pieces so that neither cat can step on them—or worse, eat them—before retiring to the bedroom. A nap is definitely in order, as he needs his wits about him when explaining it all to Q.

*

Q arrives later in the afternoon, and James is ready and waiting for him by the door. He hugs Q and kisses him back when Q initiates it, but when they pull away he can barely make himself look his lover in the eye. 

“What’s happened?” Q asks, his smile dimming and then dropping altogether at the serious look on James’s face. 

“I’m afraid I have bad news,” James says. At Q’s shocked look he hastens to add, “No, darling, it has nothing to do with the cats.” 

Q looks at him as if he’s not sure whether to trust his words or not. “What is it about, then?” 

James sighs. “It’s about your favourite mug. Something happened when I was trying to make tea, and I accidentally dropped it, and it broke. I’m really sorry, Q, I didn’t mean for it to happen.” 

“James!” Q scolds his, and his expression is that of relief. “Don’t scare me like that again, please! I thought that for sure it had to have something to do with Misty or Shadow.” 

James blinks, feeling suddenly disoriented. “But I broke your favourite mug!” 

Q shrugs and finally starts removing his scarf and jacket. “It was an accident, you said. These things happen.” 

“It was your favourite mug!” James insists. “I’ve seen you drink from it countless times, and it’s featured in half of the photos I’ve seen of you. I even tried looking for a replacement on the Internet.”

Q smiles softly. “I appreciate your effort. But really, it’s fine. It was just a mug.” 

James looks at Q, bewildered. This was certainly not the reaction he expected when he’d tell Q what had happened. 

Q turns back to face him and raises an eyebrow when he sees him still there, staring. Then his expression clears. 

“It was my favourite mug because it was adorable. And also because it was the first mug I ever bought for myself with my own money,” Q explains. “So it’s at least twenty years old and has gone through both university and three moves with me. I’m honestly surprised that it took this long for it to break.” He shrugs. “So you might say that it was its time to go.” 

James just looks at Q. “I’m still sorry that its breaking was my fault.”

“I know, and I forgive you,” Q says simply. “As long as you cleaned the floor afterwards.” 

“Of course I did,” James assures his lover. “And if you’d be amenable, I could make it up to you some other way.”

“What did you have in mind?”

James tells him. 

When he’s leading Q towards the bedroom, he decides that he’ll not give up on looking for the mug. Perhaps he’ll find it one day, and can surprise Q with it. 

And if not, perhaps he’ll find another mug that’s just as adorable, one with which he and Q can make new memories together. 


End file.
